This is the weekly column

Some answers to common questions:

• What does “fruity” and “sweet” mean in a wine review?

They are two different concepts. Fruity or “fruit-forward” wine is one where fruit flavors dominate over other flavors such as vanilla, oak toast, minerality. Sweet wine has perceptible residual sugar because not all of the grape sugar was converted into alcohol or sugar was added after complete fermentation.

Confusion arises when a dry wine with little or no residual sugar has very ripe fruit flavors. Our minds and tastebuds associate vivid fruit flavors with sweetness. We think the wine is sweet, even if lab results show there is little or no residual sugar. Most table wines are dry or off-dry (0-35 g/L). Dessert wines such as sauternes, porto, and sherry usually have significant residual sugar (120 or more g/L).

• What do “perlage,” “mousse,” and “bead” mean in sparkling wine?

Broadly, they all refer to the bubbles. Perlage can indicate finer, softer, smaller bubbles. Mousse can imply creamier bubbles. Bead can refer to the trail of bubbles rising in the glass. There is no hard definition and the terms can be used interchangeably.

• What should I do if I break my wineglass at a restaurant?

Notify a staff member immediately. No need to be embarrassed or make excuses; this happens all the time. The staff will want to clean it up themselves so you won’t cut yourself and make the situation even worse. The staff has the tools and experience to make the problem go away quickly. You might sweeten the tip, however.

• What is “structure” in a wine?

Structure is an abstract term that is hard to define. Structure is about the relationship between all the components in a wine—tannins, acidity, alcohol, body, glycerol, and more. When a wine has “good structure” it means all the parts work together harmoniously. Tannins are the base element of wines with good structure, but structure is the sum of all the parts of a wine. You may not be able to define it, but you will know it when you taste it.

• How do I open a bottle of wine with a wax seal?

Ignore the wax seal, insert the worm through the wax into the cork and twist it down. Pull the cork. The wax seal will shatter to bits and fall away. If some wax clings near the opening, peel it away before fully pulling the cork.

Last round

May your troubles be less, your blessings more, and nothing but happiness come through your door. I think that means a wine delivery. Wine time.

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Wine has an image problem that is both its biggest asset and its Achilles heal. Wine is the most complex alcohol drink.

If you examine wine’s consumer base, wine drinkers tend to be older, better educated, upper-middle class or above. The popular image: wine drinkers are old, snotty, rich people. Not an ideal demo if you are a marketeer striving to expand your winery’s customer base.

Let’s admit the basic truth behind the stereotype. Wine is complicated. I don’t need to know where the hops or barely or water came from to slam back a light beer. Just put the 18-pack in the cooler and start pulling pull tabs. Most wine drinkers do not approach wine that way.

As Baby Boomer wine drinkers began to savor the complexity of wine in the 1980s, words like “terroir” and “new French oak” and “malolactic conversion” and “whole cluster fermentation” and “carbonic maceration” and “sur lie” and “bâttonage” and “solera system” became part of their vocabulary. Not words typically blurted out by beer Bubbas at the local dive bar during happy hour.

As wine appreciation soared beginning in the 1980s, so came slick wine magazines, wine books, wine websites, wine gurus, wine tourism, wine clubs, and states opening up to direct-to-consumer wine sales from an exploding number of winemakers dedicated to quality. Ah, what heady times those were.

No trend lasts forever, although it can be argued that after 8,000 years wine hardly is a trend. But the wine world certainly faces headwinds in the 2020s. Wine is not going away, but the intoxicating wine burgeoning of the last 40 years appears to have reached an apogee.

And so winemakers have to assess who they are and what their product is. I suggest embracing wine for what it is—complicated, sophisticated, and still down-to-earth enjoyable. Dumbing down will not convince 21-something newbies to spend $18 on a bottle of wine instead of $10 on a six-pack of beer, hard cider, or malt beverage. But when, by happenstance, they experience a quality meal with a quality wine, then comes the “ah-ha” moment. This is what wine is all about.

Tasting notes

• Domaine Bousquet Malbec, Tupungato Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina 2022: Fresh, crunchy, flagrantly ripe fruit. Simple but decadently indulgent in pleasuring your palate. $10-14 Link to my review

• Bonterra Sauvignon Blanc, California 2023: Easy drinker, nice introduction to famously food-friendly sauv blanc. Round, smooth, happily approachable, pleasurable mouthfeel. $15 Link to my review

Last round: My wife told me: “I never listen to her.” Something like that. I don’t recall exactly. I don’t pay that much attention to what she says. Wine time.

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Followers of my wine writing know I do not do negative wine reviews. I consider myself a curator rather than a critic. If you want snark about a particular wine, others are happy to satisfy you.

Why this conscious choice? There is limited space and time in my newspaper columns, online posts, podcasts—and my life, for that matter. I choose to spend that allotment on subjects you may enjoy and convey positive commentary about wines, people who make them, and where they are made. The world has a plethora of people engaged in putdowns and callous comments. I am not among them.

That said, there are wines I do not savor, and I have flirted with mentioning them in the 16-plus years of this column. Excellent wines do not have to be expensive, but they are seldom cheap. If you spend less than $10 on a bottle, the odds are good it will not be undrinkable, also not remarkable. Wine is a business. You get what you pay for.

“Supermarket wines”—frequently touted as exclusive although they often are generic commodity wines with a catchy label slapped on a “shiner” bottle. But they are drinkable. They oftentimes have added residual sugar—no winery goes broke making sweetened wines—and ramped up alcohol. Fine. If you enjoy, it is good wine for you. Just know, quality wine can be more, especially when married to a quality meal.

There are boxed wines—really a bag in a box—that are environmentally responsible to the Earth and fiscally responsible to your budget. Bota Box and Black Box certainly have more than drinkable offerings, and there are others. There also are several bag-in-a-box wines that are plonk made only so the wedding party or the charity gathering will juice up the participants while not bankrupting the hosts.

Quality wines cost money because they take time, effort, skill, and luck to make them. Those are the wines I print/post about. It is a wonderful privilege to receive many of these wines free from the wineries who want me to review their effort. I also purchase wines to review. In all cases, as I sip and stare at the screen on my computer, my thought is “would my readers and followers find joy and pleasure?” If yes, I write. If no, I delete.

Wine is a special food that has enhanced human life for 8,000 years. All I want to do is a small part in advancing that mission.

Last round

If cats could text you back, they wouldn’t. Wine time.

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Spring is here. What wines are especially suited for the warming days and the return of plants from dormancy? There are many happy choices.

Bright acidity, floral aromatics, freshness, lightness, and lower alcohol are hallmarks of wines that pair with the dynamic character of the season. Here are some classic suggestions:

• Sauvignon blanc. New Zealand efforts burst with lime and passionfruit and aromas of freshly mowed grass. Efforts from France’s Loire Valley lean more toward flinty minerality. West Coast sauv blancs can be silky with notes of honeydew melon. All work with spring salads, seafood, goat cheese.

• Riesling. Dry versions from Germany’s Mosel region deliver floral aromas and crisp apple, sometimes honeysuckle and nectarine. Very versatile. Pair with a picnic.

• Vinho verde. Portugal’s light, high acidity, slightly effervescent, lower alcohol wine is another picnic pleaser with citrus and apple notes. Seafood is classic pairing, so is a fresh tomato and cucumber salad. It also pairs well with spicy foods. Serve well chilled.

• Dry rosé. Of course. Provencal styles deliver strawberry, watermelon, lemon-lime, grapefruit, delicate whiffs of roses and other flowers. Light bodied, crisp, refreshing. Another very versatile food wine and can be enjoyed sipped by itself during a lovely spring afternoon.

• Pinot noir. The light red is versatile. Enjoy ripe strawberry flavors amid silky tannins.

• Gamay. These wines from France’s Beaujolais can be slightly chilled. They deliver vibrant flavors of strawberry, raspberry, cherry, and cranberry. Thanks to carbonic maceration—where fermentation begins inside the intact berry in an oxygen-free tank—you also may get banana, kirsch, or bubblegum. Usually light bodied with good acidity, low tannins, low alcohol, silky mouthfeel, refreshing. Another very versatile food pairing wine.

Not all wines are well suited for spring. Wines to think twice about before opening:

• Heavy, full-bodied reds. Grippy tannins and higher alcohol of cabernet sauvignon, syrah/shiraz, mourvèdre can make them awkward springtime wines.

• Mass-market blends with residual sugar. With candied fruit flavors, thick, syrupy textures, and elevated alcohol they are not sprightly in spring. Or any season, some would argue.

• Heavy-oaked chardonnays and viogniers. Butter and vanilla notes easily overpower spring’s lighter fare. Save those for winter.

Tasting notes:

• Rabble Sauvignon Blanc, Central Coast 2022: Nuanced, balanced, impressive interplay of tartness and hint of sweetness with plenty of fruitiness. $18-21 Link to my review

• Mendes & Symington Monção e Melgaço Contacto Alvarinho Vinho Verde DOC 2023: Bright, refreshing, great minerality, outstanding quality. $22-27 Link to my review

• Maison Sainte Marguerite Symphonie Rosé, Côtes de Provence 2022: Elegant, refined, classic, harmonious Provence rosé. Finesse, freshness with minerality, bright acidity. $24-28 Link to my review

Last round

A book fell on my head. I can only blame my shelf. Wine time.

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Sixty years ago, Texas wine was a curious microdot in the wine world. Two Texas Tech professors piddled around with a few grapevines, originally intending to make grape jelly to supplement their income.

“Doc” McPherson, a chemistry professor, and Robert Reed, a horticultural specialist, wondered if the Texas High Plains around Lubbock could diversify regional crops beyond cotton and corn. Texas Tech encouraged them. In 1969, the pair planted a vineyard with more than 140 different grape varieties to see what worked.

Texas stereotype: it is too hot and too dry for grape production. Flawed stereotype. Yes, there are hot summer days, but at elevations of 3,300-4,000 feet—that’s why it is called the “High Plains”—the diurnal shift, a significant factor in quality wine, could be 40 degrees. There was fast-draining, phylloxera-free soils. A major aquifer to provide irrigation. Relatively cheap land and Texas money to buy it.

Jon Lebkowsky

Today, the Texas High Plains grows some 85% of Texas grapes in a wide range of varieties. The palette available to Texas grape growers is a signature feature. Heat-tolerant Mediterranean and Rhône varieties tempranillo, mourvèdre, viognier lead the way, but there are many more—likely 75. Texans are still figuring it out.

California dominates U.S. wine with 85% of the market, followed by Washington State with 5%, New York State with 3.5%, Oregon with 1.5%—closely followed by Texas and Virginia also with 1.5%.

From humble beginnings, Texas now has more than 1,000 licensed wineries, 430 full commercial operations. By comparison, Napa has 500 physical wineries. In another comparison, the Texas Hill Country AVA, centered around Fredericksburg, is the second-most visited AVA in the country, trailing only Napa. The Texas wine industry annually contributes more than $20 billion to the state’s economy, supports 75,000 jobs.

Texas is not going to challenge the West Coast wine behemoths. It does have a solid niche in Texas, where most Texas wine is sold. Wider distribution will come. Right now, Texans can kick back at a charming Fredericksburg tasting room and note the state has come a long way from curious profs planning to sell grape jelly between semesters at Texas Tech.

Tasting notes:

• William Chris Vineyards Purtell Vineyard Grenache, Texas High Plains 2020: Smooth, easy drinker from a top Texas winemaker and leading Texas wine grape grower. Delivers svelte sophistication of grenache. $21-25 Link to my review

• Wedding Oak Winery Chenin Blanc, Texas High Plains, Phillips Vineyard 2023: Vivid citrus, tree fruits in clean, precise manner. No interference from oak, nice depth, complexity. $30 Link to my review

Last round

What happens when a microscope crashes into a telescope? You have a kaleidoscope. Wine time.

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It used to be simple. Good wine had a natural cork. Cheap wine had a screw top. Not any more.

The 1990s wine boom stressed cork production and engendered an increase in “cork taint” caused by the chemical compound trichloroanisole (TCA). By some measures, 5% or more of cork-closed bottles exhibited the musty, wet cardboard aromas of cork taint.

The wine industry responded. Natural cork makers focused on sanitation and quality control. The problem lessened but cannot be totally eliminated. Alternatives blossomed, but all closures proved to have some problems.

• Screw tops eliminated TCA, but in low tannin wines there can be a reductive process that produces sulfur odors. Wet cardboard was replaced by rotten-egg smells. Careful use of sulfur and liner improvements have reduced this issue. Today, 90% of wines made in New Zealand and Australia employ screw tops.

• DIAM corks are made by dismantling natural cork into fine granules, then reconstituting with polyurethane binders. The process eliminates TCA and can be fine-tuned for oxygen ingress. But that fine tuning can introduce variables, including the same sulfur issues as screw tops, muted aromatics, and thin, flat flavors. DIAMs also cost significantly more than natural cork.

• Synthetic corks. Eliminates TCA, but can prevent the micro-oxygenation desired in aged wine. There also is an environmental trade-off. Synthetic corks rely on non-renewable plastic, contributing to microplastic pollution.

• Glass closures. Vino-Lok glass stoppers eliminate TCA and create a seal that virtually prohibits oxygen ingress, a good or a bad thing depending on the wine. The stoppers require significant modifications to a bottling line, a hurdle for smaller producers. They also require specialized bottles, which can cost 20-30% more than a standard Bordeaux bottle.

• Natural corks are made from the renewable outer bark of the cork oak tree. When a tree reaches 25-30 years old, its bark can be harvested every 9-12 years for 200-plus years. Cork closures have been the gold standard in closures for centuries. Cork tree forests sequester a significant amount of carbon dioxide, up to 14 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Because of the renewal of bark, harvested trees absorb 3-5 times more carbon than non-harvested trees. Cork trees also support Mediterranean biodiversity and sustain rural economies in Portugal and Spain. Deep roots systems stabilize the soil and retain moisture.

Bottom line: there are advantages and disadvantages to each type of closure. Natural cork-based products still close almost half of the world’s wine bottles and 70% of premium wines. Natural corks are not going away any time soon.

Last round

Perfect pairing: I like wine. Wine likes me. Pull the cork, twist the screw top.

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I find Perplexity a useful AI tool researching wine and other topics. In an act of hubris, I challenged it to evaluate Gus Clemens on Wine.

Today’s column addresses some of the Perplexity results. You can generate your own evaluation of the column at the site, or evaluate yourself if you have an online presence and the nerve to so venture. Here I address Perplexity’s principal findings:

• No wine scores. From the start of my wine writing in the newspapers and online in 2008, I chose to emphasize narrative, backstory, nuanced tasting notes. I consider 100-point systems falsely specific, while acknowledging their marketing value. Perplexity: “By focusing on narrative-driven evaluations and contextual insights, Clemens aims to demystify wine appreciation while resisting the homogenizing effects of score-driven criticism.”

• No negative reviews. Perplexity accurately portrays me as a curator rather than a critic. If I do not like a wine or find it underwhelming, I do not publish a review. If I publish a review, it means I found something worthwhile in the winery’s effort, as may you. I do not waste your time with negatives. I also snarkily note: “If you want snark, watch cable news.” Life is too short for me to savor putting down other people or their products.

• Texas wines. Perplexity gives me more credit than I deserve for promoting Texas wines. For the first decade, I rarely visited Texas wine, reflecting my original Texas editor’s dictate to write about wine that people could find and afford, an approach I agreed with. At that time, Texas wine was challenging to get and often over-priced. Times changed. In 2019, I devoted several columns and online wine reviews to Texas wineries and wines, reflecting the significant emergence of Texas in the wine world. My audience now reaches well beyond Texas—where I live—but I have no shame or reluctance in telling today’s Texas wine story.

• Welcomed kind words. Perplexity generally delivers positive reports. Indulge me as one of its conclusions affirmed what I hope readers get from my work: “Following Gus Clemens offers more than wine recommendations—it’s an invitation to join a global conversation about wine’s role in culture, history, and daily life. His work bridges the gap between expert critique and everyday enjoyment, empowering readers to explore with confidence. Whether dissecting Texas’ emerging wine scene or decoding Portuguese Porto production, Clemens equips his audience with knowledge, humor, and ethical clarity.”

Last round

How do you throw an egg at a wall without breaking it? It does not matter. Eggs do not break walls. Wine time.

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By best estimate, there are some 10,000 different grape varieties in the world. If you tasted a different one every day, it would take you more than 27 years to complete the task. Thankfully, the world of wine is confined to a smaller number.

About 6,000 grapes belong to the principal fine wine species Vitis vinifera. Only about 1,300 are actively used in winemaking. Only 13 varieties make up one-third of global winemaking; 33 varieties make up more than half of global use.

The variety of grapes is significantly different depending on the country. Italy apparently has the most diversity, home to more than 1,300 varieties used in wine making. Sangiovese is Italy’s most-planted grape, but it only accounts to around 8% of grapes grown.

In contrast, New Zealand cultivates around 30 varieties, with sauvignon blanc accounting for 78% of production. Sauv blanc, pinot noir, pinot gris, and chardonnay account for more than 90% of New Zealand’s wine grape production.

The wine industry in the United States is so large and chaotic we do not know how many wine grape varieties are grown, and there are some native wine grapes that are not Vitis vinifera. We do have an idea about the top 10, which account for more than 80% of grape production. The numbers are rough because there are 50 different wine producing states with 50 different counting regimens. And the numbers change every year according to the vagaries of agriculture.

According to the best-available numbers, there are 457,700 acres planted in the top ten varieties in the U.S. What follows are acres and percentages of the total:

• Chardonnay: 106,000 (23.2%)

• Cabernet sauvignon: 101,300 (22.1%)

• Pinot noir: 61,800 (13.5%)

• Merlot: 51,900 (11.3%)

• Zinfandel: 47,000 (10.3%)

• Syrah/shiraz: 22,000 (4.8%)

• Pinot gris: 19,800 (4.3%)

• French colombard: 19,700 (4.3%)

• Sauvignon blanc: 17,300 (3.8%)

• Rubired (used in bulk wine): 10,900 (2.4%)

Tasting notes

• Stoller Family Estate Chardonnay, Willamette Valley 2023: Presents without complications of oak or excessive malolactic fermentation. Simple, clean, pure. $19-25 Link to my review

• Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma 2021: Drinks like a Napa, priced like a Sonoma. Go-to rich red wine play year after year. $25-35 Link to my review

• Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon Canoe Ridge Estate, Horse Heaven Hills 2019: Consistent cab made by Washington State’s largest winemaker; tasty tannins, generous fruit. $30-36 Link to my review

• William Chris Vineyards Mourvèdre Reserve, Texas High Plains 2018: Solid, silky presentation of mourvèdre, a grape that found a home in Texas. Good balance of fruit, acidity; reserved, elegant tannins. $35-38 Link to my review

Last round

I tell everyone about the benefits of eating dried grapes. It’s about raisin awareness. Wine time.

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It is a new year and there are sweeping changes in wine bottle sizes in America. Yep, wine makers and glass blowers have a whole new tool kit to entice you into experiencing whatever elixir they have conjured from grape juice and yeast and wood and whatever else the white-coated wine wizards have procured.

Last year your bottle choices were limited. Wine could only be sold in 187 mL single-serving bottles (think airplane or rip-off hotel frig), 375 mL “half bottles,” 500 mL bottles, standard 750 mL bottles, and 1500 mL magnums. Also way-oversized bottles named for Biblical figures and mythological kings (Midas is the largest size, equivalent of 40 standard bottles of wine—almost 8 gallons).

David Herrera

The days of limited sizes are no more. Regulators replaced restriction with confusion. It now is legal to package wine in the following new categories:

• 180 mL

• 300 mL

• 330 mL

• 360 mL

• 473 mL (16 oz.)

• 550 mL

• 568 mL (19.2 oz)

• 600 mL

• 620 mL

• 700 mL

• 720 mL

• 1.8 L

• 2.25 L

Welcome to 2025, the Wild Wild West of wine packaging.

The change allows American winemakers easier entry into some international markets where bottle sizes have been different for years. New sizes help harmonize U.S. packaging with international standards. It gives consumers more choice, albeit at the expense of confusion. What is the difference between a standard 750 mL bottle and a 720 mL bottle? The answer is about one fluid ounce.

Expectation: it will not make much difference in the short term. A 750 mL bottle will remain the standard. There are tens of millions of those bottles already on the shelves or in the production pipeline. The plethora of finished product will take years to work its way through the consumer digestive tract.

Big producers likely will offer some of these new sizes, they may have bottling lines producing them now for the international market. Small producers may not make any changes, or only to the one or two sizes that generate the most demand.

Retail—wine stores and supermarkets—will be an even bigger challenge. Stores have limited shelf space. If a store stocks three different bottles sizes of one brand, two different brands will have to go. The most likely way you will be able to purchase the new, non-traditional size bottle will be directly from the winery, if they offer the new size.

And so it goes in the wine world.

Last round

The police executed a surprise raid on the psychics’ wine social. Interestingly, none of the psychics saw that coming.

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Valentine’s Day cometh, time for expressing love and affection, although one can argue that should be on your to-do list every day.

The celebration has roots as far back as ancient Rome. It was then called Lupercalia, a day dedicated to Lupercus, the god of shepherds, and aimed at promoting health and fertility. As do many celebrations, Lupercalia-Valentine’s links to seasonal change. In the Northern Hemisphere, mid-February typically marks the end of the coldest nights of winter. Spring starts five weeks later.

The pagan festival fell out of favor with the fall of Rome. In 494 CE, Pope Gelasius I officially banned the festival. Two years later, however, the same pope set things in motion for today’s celebration when he recognized a Christian martyr, Valentine, as a saint. Executed around 270 CE, Valentine supposedly wrote an affectionate letter to his jailer’s daughter and signed it “from your Valentine.”

And then came the so-called “Dark Ages” and Lupercalia and St. Valentine were largely lost in the mists of memory. Until cometh Geoffrey Chaucer and his poem “The Parliament of Fowls” in the 1380s. Wrote the English poet: “For this was seynt Volantynys day, when euery byrd comyth there to chese his make.” His effort may have been an effort to celebrate the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.

Chaucer’s effort inspired others. By the 1400s, February 14th, the day in 496, when Gelasius canonized Valentine, the day became roughly the Valentine’s Day we know today. The story is somewhat muddier, of course. There are three saints named Valentine and the Catholic Church removed St. Valentine’s Day from its official calendar of feast days in 1969 due to lack of reliable information about the saint. That should not stop you from celebrating love and affection on February 14.

Wine, of course, can be part of your celebration. Classic pairings:

• Sparkling rosé. Can be expensive Champagne or the many alternatives. Clever folks will pair the rosé with a dozen roses and note their love always sparkles.

• Rosé in general. Non-sparkling, “still wines,” can still indicate you are still the love of my life.

• Ruby or tawny port paired with dark chocolate is classic.

Tasting notes

• Avaline Rosé, Vin de France: Light crowd pleaser made with cavalcade of classic rosé grapes, led by grenache. $16-20 Link to my review

• Kopke 20 Years Old Tawny Porto: Archetypal tawny made by the oldest Port house in the world (1638 founding). $70-80 Link to my review

Last round

What did the light bulb say to the switch on Valentine’s Day? You really turn me on. Wine time.

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